Homemade Mascarpone
The simplest dish imaginable — yet wonderfully tasty, with a stunningly silky texture. Mascarpone is a soft, delicate cheese, prized for its high fat content and rich, creamy consistency. The sheer number of recipes calling for mascarpone is itself a sign of how far back this cheese goes. Thanks to its pronounced creamy flavor, it shows up most often in desserts — but not only there. It can go into sauces for Italian pasta and into all sorts of main dishes, and those who love it will happily eat it plain. Every creamery guards the particulars of how it makes its cheese. What's known for certain is that mascarpone is made from buffalo milk, or simply from very rich milk. Cream made from this milk is heated to between 165 and 195°F (75–90°C) in commercial production, and lemon juice or white wine vinegar is used to curdle it. It never became a diet food because of its high fat content, but along with that fat it carries plenty of calcium, protein, and vitamins. And it's precisely that fat that gives it the creamy, tender consistency that makes it indispensable in so many dishes. And yet you can make mascarpone at home in a city apartment. True, we're unlikely to track down buffalo milk, but we'll make do.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Buttermilk - 36 kcal/100g
- Cream of 20% fat content - 300 kcal/100g
- Cream of 10% fat content - 120 kcal/100g
- Cream - 300 kcal/100g
- Citric acid - 0 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
